Malá Strana: the baroque terrace gardens
Wallenstein's peacocks, the terraced gardens climbing the castle hill, and the Vrtba view. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Valdštejnská zahrada (Wallenstein Garden)
Start at the grandest — the general Wallenstein's 1620s *zahrada* (garden), free to enter, with peacocks loose on the lawns and a vast vaulted *sala terrena* facing the parterre. The dripstone grotto wall in the corner is honeycombed with grotesque faces; children find them first.

2. Sala terrena & the bronze avenue
The line of bronze statues down the centre of the garden are copies; the originals were carried off as Swedish war loot in 1648 and never came back. Walk the avenue to the sala terrena and look back at the castle rising over the wall — the whole garden was staged for this view.

3. Ledebour & the terraced Palace Gardens
A linked run of five baroque gardens climbing the castle hill in stairs and balustrades — the Ledebour the lowest, the others stacked above on terraces. Seasonal and ticketed; if the gate's open, climb. The higher you go, the better the rooftops behind you.

4. Vrtbovská zahrada (Vrtba Garden)
Hidden behind a doorway off *Karmelitská*, this is the finest of them — a tight baroque terrace garden climbing in symmetrical flights to a belvedere. From the top, the view back over Malá Strana's tiled roofs to the dome of St Nicholas is the one you came for.

5. Malostranské náměstí
End at the square, with the green dome of St Nicholas in front of you and the trams running through the lower corner. A drink on the upper terrace, then home — you've climbed enough garden stairs for one afternoon.

Malá Strana: the baroque terrace gardens